FlickDirect Talks to The Cast of iZombie at Comic Con 2015

If you don't watch the CW, you may have been missing out on the latest addition to the zombie universe. iZombie is loosely based off the comic book series and adapted by Rob Thomas (known for writing the screenplay for the Veronica Mars movie and the reboot of 90210) and Diane Ruggiero (who worked on The Ex List and Veronica Mars). Basically, the premise is, a girl named Olivia Moore is turned into a zombie and to cope with her new appetite for brains, she becomes a mortician, giving her a buffet everyday at work. Only thing is, each time she eats one, she gets flashes of the previous owner's life, which, usually, give her clues as to how they were murdered. Yep, she passes herself off as a psychic consultant to the police. iZombie's first season, which had 13 episodes, just ended June 9, 2015 and has been renewed for a second season.

We got to sit with a few members of the iZombie team to get a little insight to the inner workings of, and the team behind, the newest series in the zombie universe.

Diane Ruggiero said they were going to start the second season basically 3 months from where season 1 left off. She told us that of all the brains she set Olivia's character up with was the cheerleader and stoner brains and how at the same time they became so conflicting. She also admitted that they really wanted to dive more into the mythology than the casework, making the mythology aspect of the show more important.

But my favorite moment was when, without her glasses, she thought she saw Ben Affleck in the room and got so excited saying "Holy shit, you mean we're like sitting here" as one of the other girls at the table assured her she would have let her know if he was really in the room. She went on to say that he would be coming to the Panel in Hall H and "That's the only reason why I'm there".

When asked what TV shows she is obsessed with, she told us "Game of Thrones", "The Walking Dead", "The Talking Dead", "Orphan Black", "Moon Boy" and even funnier still, she told us, to fall asleep she watches a series that's over ten years old about two old ladies that solve murders, as they garden, called "Rosemary and Thyme". Then she jokingly asked, "Would you ever hire them to do your garden if every time they show up with a back hoe someone gets killed?" Well, I can tell you after she left us, a few of us looked it up, and I can bet the viewership on that show has gone up!

We also got to talk to Rob Thomas, Co-writer for iZombie, and he admitted that he was terrified about adapting a comic book, thinking that the creators of the comic would hate what he has done with the comic and series. But, to the contrary, they were actually quite supportive in this endeavor. He noted that while the comic book had multiple monsters, he thought of how "True Blood" did that, and he was leery of going down the same path. Interestingly enough, he talked about how the idea of iZombie was brought to him by the head of development at Warner Brothers. He came to him and put the cover of the comic down in front of him saying that CW needed a kick ass female hero, and that they needed the next Buffy, or the next Veronica. It seemed to him it was more the cover of the comic that was pitched and not so much as the content as much as the image of a female lead zombie.

The lovely Rose McIver, who plays the lead Olivia Moore, sat down with us for a little bit and talked about how her character, before becoming a zombie, was really quite boring; that things were good in her life, that she was kind and hardworking, but it wasn't until she became undead that life became interesting. She joked about how at the end of the day, she would get on the phone and talk with people about what brains she ate that day, and how insane that sounds to people overhearing her conversation. She also told us the brains are made of a gelatin and soy with corn syrup on top, and while she said it could be worse, by the looks on her face, I think she would prefer Lo Mein! Also, she's a big fan of "Masters of Sex", "Bloodline", "Curb Your Enthusiasm", and admitted that she just started watching "Breaking Bad".

Lastly, we spoke with David Anders, who plays Blaine DeBeers. He talked about how while he has played bad guys in the past, and doesn't want to be typecast as one, this role humanizes him, both literally and figuratively, as his character has taken the cure to become human again. The question still is, is it truly a cure? Are there any side effects? Also, how will his character handle the transformation? David quipped "There might be a little bit of fibbing on Blaine's part this second season. There're may be some lying keeping up appearances". And, yet, he let us know that in this second season we will find out how he became the man/zombie he is. That he was a nice guy before he became a zombie. We asked him about shows he likes to watch, and he made us laugh saying, "I get a massive thoner every time I watch "Game Of Thrones". He also said he loves "Veep".

So, if you haven't gotten your fill of the zombie genre, and haven't found iZombie yet, maybe you should check out the first season, which is online as well as coming out on DVD September 29th 2015. That way, you'll be all caught up before iZombie Season 2 starts up on October 6th 2015 on the CW!

About Sean Ferguson

Sean's background in advertising, and love of the cinema brought Sean to reviewing films and interviewing the people behind the scenes involved in bringing this art form to life. His goal, to promote the best Hollywood has to offer!
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